Glickenhaus is single handedly going to win Le Mans for America with LMP1 Prototype

Glickenhaus wants to fund an LMP1 effort, at cost, to bring the title back to America

James Glickenhaus is commissioning an LMP1 prototype that will win Le Mans for America given he can sell 25 road going versions.

It’s been close to 50 years since America won outright at Le Mans with Ford’s GT program and James Glickenhaus has had enough. According to Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus off of their social media post from just a few hours ago (July 25, 2018) Glickenhaus is ready to build the SCG 007 LMP1, a Le Mans ready prototype aided along by the rules changes set for the 2020 season. Check out the beautiful pictures of their hopefully Le Mans winning design below.

Glickenhaus’s mention of Briggs Cunningham, Carrol Shelby, and Jim Hall is a fitting way to set the tone of what will be an all-American effort at the title. With new regulations set for 2020 that brings the cost to run an LMP1 team down to a quarter of what it normally costs and reining in the designs to cater to lower budgets, Glickenhaus will be facing stiff competition from other competitors who have yet to throw their hat in the ring.

Before this SCG 007 LMP1 can hit the track, Glickenhaus must sell 25 road going versions with a tentative price of around $1M. I imagine they’ll be able to sell that many in short order as early reviews of their first road going car, the 003S, seem to be hailing it as a hypercar of the utmost quality.

How can you not cheer on an effort that, “will fund it (A Le Mans team) no matter what even if it’s just one car racing against the world.” That’s factory support that I assume is hard to come by in this current World Endurance Championship climate where LMP1 teams are few and far between. Hopefully, these new rules will change all that.

I do wonder if this has lit the fire under Ford, at the very least, to consider funding an LMP1 effort with these new rule changes. Perhaps they can repurpose their GT2 class winning Ford GT to bring the record home. It would only be fitting as their GT40s did a couple of decades ago.

Stay tuned as I’ll definitely keep you updated on details about this American hypercar as they become available.